Maldives Independent

Three Maldivians arrested en route to Syria

Three Maldivians arrested en route to Syria

According to the police, the three men were arrested in a joint operation with the Turkish law enforcement authorities. They were alleged to have been planning to cross the border into Syria to join a militant group.

Three Maldivians en route to join the fighting in Syria were arrested in Turkey and brought back to the country on Saturday.

According to the police, the three men were arrested in a joint operation with the Turkish law enforcement authorities. They were alleged to have been planning to cross the border into Syria to join a militant group.

The police declined to reveal their identities or any further information.

The criminal court in Malé remanded the suspects to police custody for 15 days upon their arrival in the Maldives.

In late August, the criminal court concluded the trial of the first suspects prosecuted for travelling abroad with the intent of joining a terror group after it was criminalised by the 2015 Anti-Terrorism Act.

The three Maldivian men were charged with terrorism following their arrest from the Turkey-Syria border in February 2016. A Maldivian man who attempted to cross into Syria was also arrested and repatriated in February this year. Two others who allegedly fought with militant groups in Pakistan are also standing trial.

According to local media, the two men were freed after they were brought back to the Maldives.

The anti-terror law was passed after the current administration was accused of ignoring the threat posed by jihadi recruitment since the first reports of Maldivians joining terror groups emerged in 2014.

The opposition claims as many as 250 Maldivians are fighting in Syria and Iraq – the highest per capita in the region. But the government says the opposition has been inflating the figure to lobby international support for its cause, offering various lower estimates and decrying damage to the economy due to “exaggerated” claims.

Defence Minister Adam Shareef Umar insisted in late April that the number of Maldivians fighting in Syria is 49.

At least six Maldivians fighting with the al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front in Syria are believed to have been killed in battle. In late April, the group’s media wing reported that a Maldivian man with the alias Abu Yousif Al-Maldivi was killed during clashes with the Syrian Arab Army inside the town of Taybat Al-Imam in northern Hama.

In August last year, the parliament approved the first state policy on combating terrorism and violent extremism, which broadly outlined plans to take “a central and active role” internationally, strengthen national security, and conduct de-radicalisation and rehabilitation programmes.